Old PCs - what to d...
 

  You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more

[Closed] Old PCs - what to do?

25 Posts
19 Users
0 Reactions
201 Views
Posts: 41395
Free Member
Topic starter
 

I have a couple of old Dells, 300 quid as refurbs/deals a decade ago, worth anything now?...or would anyone want donated?

Also the predecessor, too slow even 10 years ago (can't remember the spec of any of them!).

Keyboards for most but no screen.


 
Posted : 04/01/2016 6:37 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Could you stick a big hdd in them and use them as a media pc?


 
Posted : 04/01/2016 6:39 pm
Posts: 41395
Free Member
Topic starter
 

I have a NAS already ta, and a PVR.


 
Posted : 04/01/2016 6:41 pm
Posts: 1454
Full Member
 

Local [url= https://coderdojo.com/ ]CoderDojo[/url] or [url= https://www.codeclub.org.uk/ ]Code Club[/url]?

They can probably stick a linux distro on and get some use out of them.


 
Posted : 04/01/2016 6:44 pm
Posts: 41395
Free Member
Topic starter
 

I have no use for them, and am not techie anyway (failed linux install on one!) I have a laptop and tablet.

EDIT I see - to donate, cheers


 
Posted : 04/01/2016 6:48 pm
Posts: 48
Free Member
 

Charity?

The Turing Trust ( http://turingtrust.co.uk) might want them. The organizer is a relative of Alan Turing and gave a speech about the trust at the last Turing Lecture.


 
Posted : 04/01/2016 6:51 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

I would put them on gumtree or freecycle and hopefully someone will come and collect them, and save you the hassle of taking them down the tip. 🙂


 
Posted : 04/01/2016 7:56 pm
Posts: 43345
Full Member
 

I'm disappointed Al. I'd have expected you to install them in the Eunos and develop your competitor to Googles self-driving car.


 
Posted : 04/01/2016 8:02 pm
Posts: 7812
Full Member
 

Some charities take them, secure wipe and send to developing world or community projects. Might be worth a search in your area as you usually need to drop off.


 
Posted : 04/01/2016 10:43 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

extract the gold from the circuit boards at home.

Read of a guy in india making his millions doing this.


 
Posted : 04/01/2016 11:13 pm
Posts: 11605
Free Member
 

Surely ECC will have the appropriate reception facilities at the tip? Stuff like that is usually forwarded to a charity who will then do the above and either salvage good bits or put the machine to use. Worth making a call to find out.


 
Posted : 05/01/2016 12:11 am
 Del
Posts: 8226
Full Member
 

If you'e going to give them away with the HD intact the least I would do is hit them with Boot and Nuke. free download, just write it to disk, or you can probably put it on a USB as well.


 
Posted : 05/01/2016 8:45 am
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Drill the HDD and microwave the memory to be sure


 
Posted : 05/01/2016 9:07 am
Posts: 13594
Free Member
 

Drill the HDD and microwave the memory to be sure

Surely Nuke from Orbit is the only way to be sure.....


 
Posted : 05/01/2016 9:10 am
 br
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Take out the HD, store at home and then take the rest to the tip for recycling.


 
Posted : 05/01/2016 9:40 am
Posts: 77347
Free Member
 

Drill the HDD and microwave the memory to be sure

DBAN the hard drive, step away from Mr Robot. (-:


 
Posted : 05/01/2016 9:48 am
Posts: 3351
Full Member
 

These guys might take them - [url= http://edinburghhacklab.com/ ]http://edinburghhacklab.com/[/url]


 
Posted : 05/01/2016 10:02 am
Posts: 11937
Free Member
 

Take out the HD, store at home

What is the point of storing the HDD?


 
Posted : 05/01/2016 10:12 am
Posts: 11605
Free Member
 

In case someone finds some expired credit card info that was used to buy something from a site that no longer exists.

Pure paranoia for the most part, DBAN is more than enough, the till receipts people throw away contain more info.


 
Posted : 05/01/2016 11:26 am
 br
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

[i]What is the point of storing the HDD? [/i]

'cos then you know where it is, they take up next-to-no space and stops anyone accessing any data on it you've left behind


 
Posted : 05/01/2016 11:38 am
Posts: 11937
Free Member
 

Is your house full of old receipts, bills and bank statements?


 
Posted : 05/01/2016 11:43 am
Posts: 1530
Free Member
 

Local School took mine. The kids take them apart and build one super pc to take over the world 😯


 
Posted : 05/01/2016 11:50 am
Posts: 15068
Full Member
 

With hard drives you can remove the metal plate, usually small torx screws to reveal the shiny disc inside.. Scratch the surface with a screw driver or something, and throw in some sand/grit for good measure.. It'll never work again.

Well technically some data might be recovered but the cost would be staggering so unless you are an international arms dealer or something it won't be worth the effort to try to read the disk.

Or Ccleaner has a built in drive wipe facility that writes zeros and ones over the whole drive, multiple times which is considered a safe wipe.

Then just bin it.


 
Posted : 05/01/2016 12:18 pm
Posts: 65918
Free Member
 

Old HDDs unless they're tiny are just plain useful- stick a backup on it.


 
Posted : 05/01/2016 4:35 pm
Posts: 13594
Free Member
 

Just drill a hole through the HDD.....


 
Posted : 05/01/2016 4:37 pm
 br
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

[i]Is your house full of old receipts, bills and bank statements? [/i]

No. I shred them 🙂


 
Posted : 05/01/2016 4:49 pm

6 DAYS LEFT
We are currently at 95% of our target!